973.7L63 


Hertz,    Emanuel 

Abraham  Lincoln   at   the 
climax   of    the   great    Lincoln. 
Douglas   jo»  nt   debate    in 
Gajesburg,    I  II  i  nois 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

AT 

THE  CLIMAX  OF  THE  GREAT 
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  JOINT  DEBATE 

IN  GALESBURG,  ILLINOIS 


By 
EMANUEL  HERTZ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnatOOhert 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

AT 

THE  CLIMAX  OF  THE  GREAT 
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  JOINT  DEBATE 

IN  GALESBURG,  ILLINOIS 


Delivered  at  Galesburg,  Illinois,  on  the  6th  day 

of  October,  1928,  on  the  70th  Anniversary 

of  the  Lincoln-Douglas  Debate,  from  a 

platform  erected  on  the  spot  where 

the  original  debate  was  held — 

upon  the  Campus  of    .    .    .    Knox  College. 


By 

EMANUEL  HERTZ 

of  New  York  City 


Dedicated  to  the  President,  Trustees,  Professors,  Teachers  and 
Students  of  Knox  College,  who  are  carrying  the  burning  torch 
which  jell  from  the  lifeless  hands  of  Abraham  Lincoln — steady 
and  high — and  who  will  see  to  it  that  this  torch  remains  lighted — 
when  the  race  is  won — ivhen  the  final  goal  shall  have  been  reached 
— the  final  victorious  battle  fought — and  the  great  consummation 
attained — ivhen  justice  will  flow  like  water  over  the  land — with 
education  for  all,  the  world  at  peace,  universal  brotherhood  no 
longer  a  dream  but  a  reality,  and  poverty  and  disease  banished 
from  the  land — when  all  men  ivill  devoutly  acknowledge  that  the 
Lord  is  07ie  and  His  name,  one.  The  Author. 


C4-  H44-*.lr 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

THE   CLIMAX    OF   THE   GREAT   LINCOLN  -  DOUGLAS 
JOINT    DEBATE 

GALESBURG,  ILLINOIS 

Delivered  by 

Emanuel  Hertz 


TTISTORIANS  have  been  unkind  to  Abraham  Lincoln  in  more  than 
-*■  •*  one  respect,  particularly  as  to  his  part  in  the  famous  joint  debates 
with  Douglas.  He  who  was  the  embodiment  of  truth,  who  hated 
exaggeration,  who  never  suppressed  facts, — he  who  never  spoke  unless 
he  had  all  the  facts,  and  when  he  had  them,  spoke  in  a  matter  that  an 
entire  country  could  hear  and  read  and  understand — now  suffers  and 
is  still  misunderstood  by  reason  of  the  absence  of  material  facts  which 
would  throw  light  on  his  career  and  on  his  epoch-making  acts  and 
statements.  The  facts  are  in  existence,  but  are  being  hidden  by  men 
and  women,  who  want  these  data  for  themselves ;  or  by  others  who  for 
purely  commercial  reasons,  conceal  priceless  letters  and  documents 
which  rightfully  belong  to  the  world.  The  Lincoln  of  the  joint  debates 
has  never  been  thoroughly  written  up  by  anyone,  nor  has  he  received 
full  justice  for  his  great  contribution  to  the  Constitutional  discussions 
which  went  far  to  settle  the  most  important  problem  since  1789.  The 
one  great  historian  who  attempted  it  passed  to  his  eternal  reward  while 
writing  of  the  Quincy  debate  and  before  the  text  in  reference  to  the 
Alton  debate  was  properly  prepared — and  before  the  great  summary 
which  Beveridge  would  have  written  of  all  the  seven  debates  was  even 
thought  of — when  the  pen  fell  from  his  lifeless  hands.  The  adequate 
and  definitive  treatment  of  Lincoln's  great  adventure,  the  Presidency, 
is  still  awaiting  the  great  historian  whc  will  give  a  lifetime  to  the  task. 

In  the  meanwhile  precious  time  is  fleeting,  irreplaceable  material 
is  disappearing,  newspaper  files  are  falling  apart — those  not  destroyed 
by  fire — and  a  fire  seems  ever  to  be  pursuing  this  priceless  Lincoln 
material — and  successive  complacent  Congresses  seem  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  pile  of  stone  on  the  Potomac — as  the  last  word  of  a  Lincoln 
monument.     Let  us  again  go  to  the  South  and  copy  the  manner  of 

5 


making  safe  the  historical  facts  surrounding  that  God-sent  messenger 
to  preserve  our  nation  even  as  they  have  done  for  his  opponent — who 
comes  as  near  vindication  as  he  ever  can  be  vindicated — in  a  final  and 
definitive  edition  of  his  complete  works — from  which  nothing  is  with- 
held.    The  entire  Southland  helped  to  make  the  compilation  complete. 

Here  at  Galesburg  seventy  years  ago  tomorrow,  Lincoln  began  on 
his  victorious  march,  which  was  as  certain  as  the  progress  of  the  suns. 
At  Ottowa,  at  Freeport,  at  Charleston,  at  Jonesboro — he  had  but 
measured  his  opponent ;  he  who  had  read  every  word  which  Douglas  had 
spoken  on  the  stump,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  while  on  the 
Illinois  Supreme  Court  bench — and  knew  what  the  Judge  would  say, 
and  how  he  would  say  it — during  these  four  preliminary  debates 
Lincoln  simply  drove  Douglas  into  position.  After  the  opening  state- 
ment, Douglas  never  again  spoke  as  he  intended  to  speak.  Lincoln, 
who  followed  with  an  hour  and  a  half's  address,  and  on  every  other 
occasion,  said  something  which  irritated  and  angered  the  Judge,  and 
made  him  forget  what  he  intended  and  planned  to  say — in  thus  attempt- 
ing to  attend  to  Lincoln's  last  irritating  and  provoking  statement. 
Douglas  had  evidently  carefully  prepared  a  continuous  oration  to  be 
delivered  in  the  style  of  the  period,  which  he  intended  to  deliver  in 
certain  sections  at  the  different  debates.  He  had  taken  four  opening 
addresses  and  four  closing  addresses,  thus  leaving  Lincoln  four  one- 
hour  and  a  half  addresses,  which  Lincoln,  used  relentlessly  and  inex- 
orably. Here  at  Galesburg  his  first  highly  sustained  address  showed 
not  only  that  he  had  taken  Douglas'  full  measure,  but  that  his  cause 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  that  quarter.  Never  after  that  day  at  Gales- 
burg does  he  condescend  to  follow  or  pay  but  passing  attention  to  the 
irritated  and  angered  Douglas.  Here  he  reached  the  high  water  mark 
of  his  career  up  to  that  time,  and  never  really  spoke  in  the  same  manner 
during  the  entire  debate,  either  before  or  after,  excepting  only  at 
Alton,  where  he  spoke  his  final  message  as  one  inspired.  He  mildly 
reminds  Douglas  at  Ouincy :  Does  he  not  know,  does  he  not  appre- 
ciate, the  great  drama  that  was  even  then  being  enacted?  Will  he 
persist  in  petty  quarrelling  and  quibbling,  he,  the  great  Douglas,  the 
undisputed  leader  of  the  Democracy?  Will  he  not  rise  to  the  great 
occasion?  Will  he  persist  in  the  childish  repetition  of  futile  charges 
and  insinuations  in  practically  the  same  words  as  he  began,  as  he  used 
in  the  speeches  in  Chicago  and  on  the  stump  during  the  times  between 
the  several  debates?  Has  he  but  one  piece  to  declaim?  Will  he  not 
cease  threatening  Lincoln — Lincoln,  who  could  not  be  threatened, 
Lincoln,  who  knew  no  fear?    Will  he  not  stop  calling  this  one  or  that 


one — "liar"  after  he  had  demonstrated  a  proposition,  even  as  Euclid 
did,  that  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  equalled  two  right  angles? 
Would  he  call  Euclid  a  liar  by  way  of  refuting  that  self-evident 
proposition  ? 

Examine  that  marvelous  record  and  you  see  that  Lincoln  never 
overlooked  anything  Judge  Douglas  said  or  asked  or  charged.  He  had 
the  text  as  reported,  compared  it  with  his  opponent's  statement,  which 
was  ever  the  same,  and  in  passing  replied  to  every  statement  he  con- 
sidered deserving  of  reply.  "Could  not  Lincoln  make  the  same  speech 
and  stick  to  the  same  speech,  as  he  did — using  the  same  phraseology?" 
He  (Douglas)  talked  the  same  way,  said  the  same  things  in  Ottowa  and 
in  Galesburg,  in  Freeport  and  in  Quincy,  in  Charleston  and  in  Alton. 
Lincoln  ever  said  some  other  thing  except  the  one  wanted  by  Judge 
Douglas.  Lincoln  never  answered  his  questions  at  the  time  the  Judge 
wanted  them  answered.  Lincoln  persisted  in  writing  down  questions 
and  writing  down  answers,  and  read  them  when  thus  in  juxtaposition. 
Lincoln  persisted  in  having  printed  statements,  extracts,  decisions  with 
him  in  his  pockets  all  the  time,  and  ever  asked  "Put  your  finger  on  the 
spot,"  when  a  quotation  was  inaccurate  or  false  or  only  partly  quoted 
— or  misquoted.  Douglas  had  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction  in  sneering 
at  Lincoln's  "spot"  resolutions  and  raised  many  a  laugh  from  his  de- 
voted followers.  But  Lincoln's  mastery  of  his  argument  against  slavery 
from  the  day  the  first  slavery  legislation  was  enacted  until  the  moment 
he  opened  his  mouth  in  Galesburg,  had  never  been  equalled  by  any 
other  man  on  the  continent.  He  knew  every  phase  of  his  subject. 
He  knew  every  idea  promulgated  by  the  friends  of  slavery  and  by  the 
friends  of  freedom,  and  had  the  quotation  or  the  legislation  or  the 
speech  under  discussion  with  him.  He  knew  what  the  fathers  and 
founders  had  said,  and  quoted  from  them  in  confounding  Douglas  when 
he  attempted  to  distort  or  misquote  them. 

"You  say  Jefferson  favored  slavery,  Judge  Douglas?  He  did 
not,"  he  said,  in  speaking  of  slavery,  "he  trembled  for  his  country  when 
he  remembered  that  God  was  just." 

"Do  you  say,  Judge  Douglas,  that  the  negroes  are  not  included 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence?" 

"I  believe  the  entire  records  of  the  world,  from  the  date  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  up  to  within  three  years  ago,  may  be 
searched  in  vain  for  one  single  affirmation,  from  one  single  man,  who 
said  that  the  negro  was  not  included  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 


ence;  I  think  I  may  defy  Judge  Douglas  to  show  that  he  ever  said  so, 
that  Washington  ever  said  so,  that  any  President  ever  said  so,  that  any 
living  man  upon  the  whole  earth  ever  said  so,  until  the  necessities  of 
the  present  policy  of  the  Democratic  party,  in  regard  to  slavery,  had 
to  invent  that  affirmation." 

"Are  you  relying  upon  that  great  Commoner,  Henry  Clay — are 
you  actually  affirming  that  Henry  Clay  has  inspired  you — and  that  you 
are  but  carrying  out  Henry  Clay's  beliefs  and  policies  as  to  Slavery? 
Hear  what  Mr.  Clay  had  to  say  when  he  was  once  answering  an  objec- 
tion to  the  Colonization  Society,  that  it  had  a  tendency  to  the  ultimate 
emancipation  of  the  slaves — Clay  said  that  'those  who  would  repress 
all  tendencies  to  liberty  and  ultimate  emancipation  must  do  more  than 
put  down  the  benevolent  efforts  of  the  Colonization  Society, — they 
must  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  liberty  and  independence,  and  muzzle 
the  cannon  that  thunders  its  annual  joyous  return;  they  must  blot  out 
the  moral  lights  around  us ;  they  must  penetrate  the  human  soul,  and 
eradicate  the  light  of  reason  and  the  love  of  liberty.'  And  I  do  think," 
says  Lincoln,  "I  repeat — that  Judge  Douglas,  and  whoever,  like  him, 
teaches  that  the  negro  has  no  share,  humble  though  it  may  be,  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  is  going  back  to  the  era  of  our  liberty 
and  independence,  and,  so  far  as  in  him  lies,  is  muzzling  the  cannon 
that  thunders  its  annual  joyous  return;  that  he  is  blowing  out  the 
moral  lights  around  us,  when  he  contends  that  whoever  wants  slaves 
has  a  right  to  hold  them;  that  he  is  penetrating,  so  far  as  lies  in  his 
power,  the  human  soul,  and  eradicating  the  light  of  reason  and  the  love 
of  liberty,  when  he  is  in  every  possible  way  preparing  the  public  mind, 
by  his  vast  influence,  for  making  the  institution  of  slavery  perpetual 
and  national." 

He  knew  all  the  legislation  beginning  with  the  ordinance  of  '87, 
when  and  where  the  whole  trouble  began.  He  followed  the  evolution 
of  the  whole  dismal  national  tragedy  until  he  brought  it  down  to  the 
date  of  the  debates.  And  when  the  two  champions  appeared  at  Ottowa 
for  the  first  time,  we  witness  upon  that  great  stage  upon  which  were 
riveted  the  eyes  of  the  whole  country,  the  champion  of  slavery,  and  the 
champion  of  freedom.  Douglas  unquestionably  represented  the  side 
of  slavery,  Lincoln  unquestionably  represented  the  side  of  freedom — 
Douglas,  fresh  from  his  triumphs  in  the  United  States  Senate  where 
he  gradually  but  inevitably  took  the  place  of  Webster,  of  Clay,  of 
Benton,  yea,  even  of  Calhoun.  In  that  same  United  States  Senate 
which  had  witnessed  some  of  the  greatest  of  our  national  gladiators 

8 


constructing,  reinforcing  and  strengthening  the  beams  of  the  Union, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  appeared  as  the  most  remarkable  and  fearless 
debater  and  legislator  of  that  day  and  generation.  Fearless  he  was, 
like  Randolph  of  Virginia,  and  Clay  of  Kentucky;  eloquent  he  was, 
like  Corwin  and  Yancey;  learned  he  was,  like  some  of  the  greatest 
scholars  who  preceded  him  in  that  forum  which  in  that  era  had  wit- 
nessed the  appearance  of  practically  all  the  great  constitutional  scholars 
of  their  day.  With  all  that  prestige,  fresh  from  defeating  the  then 
president  of  the  United  States  on  the  Kansas  legislation,  the  undisputed 
orator  and  spokesman  of  the  Democracy,  the  inevitable  nominee  of 
his  party  for  the  Presidency  in  the  forthcoming  National  election, 
travelling  in  state  in  a  manner  never  equalled  by  any  other  candidate, 
he  reached  Ottowa,  the  locality  where  the  first  joint  debate  was 
launched.  Opposed  to  him  was  he  who  was  commonly  known  as  the 
most  often-defeated  and  disappointed  candidate  for  office,  a  man  who 
had  surmounted  troubles  innumerable  from  the  days  of  his  childhood, 
a  man  upon  whom  the  burdens  of  life  had  fallen  so  heavily  that  he 
never  reached  the  calm,  the  sunshine,  the  conviviality,  the  proud  posi- 
tion of  his  more  successful  and  fortunate  opponent.  By  some  strange 
irony  of  fate,  humble  Abe  Lincoln  was  picked  out  to  oppose  the  con- 
quering Douglas,  who  up  to  that  day  practically  knew  no  defeat.  No 
poorer  choice  could  have  been  made,  was  the  opinion  of  almost  every- 
one who  watched  the  two  gladiators  upon  that  memorable  stage.  How 
could  Abraham  Lincoln  hope  to  defeat  Douglas,  or  even  to  cope  with 
Douglas  ?  How  could  the  man  with  the  single  term  in  Congress,  driven 
from  public  life — as  he  was  often  reminded  by  Douglas  for  taking  the 
unpopular  side  of  the  Mexican  war,  and  looking  with  disfavor  upon 
the  Administration  which  plunged  us  into  it,  and  practically  forgotten, 
how  could  he  cope  with  the  State  Legislator,  the  nationally  known 
advocate,  the  Supreme  Court  Judge,  the  Congressman,  the  United 
States  Senator,  the  inevitable  Democratic  nominee  for  the  Presidency? 
But  fortune  had  played  the  young  Republican  party  many  a  trick,  and 
this  was  evidently  but  another;  to  be  actually  represented  in  the  great 
State  of  Illinois,  opposing  the  greatest  speaker  of  his  day  and  gen- 
eration, by  poor  Abe  Lincoln,  the  man  of  yarns,  the  plodding  country 
lawyer,  the  ill-clad,  ill-dressed,  ill-appearing  farm  hand  and  rail 
splitter !  Will  the  new  Republican  party  ever  come  into  its  own — after 
Fremont — Lincoln?  Still,  the  time  for  retracing  their  steps  was  gone. 
There  they  were,  confronting  each  other  and  as  usual,  with  the  hard 
luck  of  the  Republican  party,  Douglas  had  to  begin — to  deliver  the 
first  blow.  Douglas  would  also  close  the  seventh  and  last  joint  debate, 
and  so  would  first  hem  in  Lincoln  on  every  side  and  finally  deliver  the 


coup-de-grace.  Douglas  was  the  beginning  and  Douglas  was  to  be  the 
end  of  the  epoch-making  and  fatal  performance.  He  had  the  first  as 
well  as  the  last  word — what  hope  was  there  then  for  Lincoln? 

But  under  that  crude  exterior,  behind  that  care  worn,  sombre, 
sad-featured  visage,  underneath  his  homely  clothes,  under  that  high, 
out-of-date  hat,  was  the  most  original  human  being  who  was  born  in 
America  since  that  first  day  upon  which  that  Genoese  dreamer-sailor 
first  saw  land.  Here  was  a  man  who  was  born  and  brought  up  in  the 
great  open  spaces,  in  the  great  deserts  of  the  young  Republic,  even  as 
was  his  prototype  in  Egypt,  four  thousand  years  ago.  Here  was  the 
gnarled,  rugged  oak,  weatherbeaten  and  scarred,  subjected  to  snow 
and  storm  and  sleet,  to  heat,  to  thunder  and  to  hurricane.  There  he 
stood,  like  the  monarch  of  the  forest,  defying  the  inclemencies  of  the 
weather  and  of  the  seasons,  and  still  remaining  supreme — calm,  serene, 
confident,  right — eternally  right. 

Douglas  spoke  his  piece  as  it  had  been  prepared,  as  it  had  been 
spoken  from  a  score  of  other  platforms,  and  consequently  with  but 
little  conviction;  always  the  same  platitudes,  the  same  simple  story  of 
how  the  conspiracy  was  hatched  between  Trumbull  and  Lincoln,  the 
one  to  steal  renegade  Democrats  and  baptize  them  into  Abolitionism, 
and  the  other  to  steal  Whigs  and  baptize  them  into  Abolitionism,  and 
thus  re-enforce  the  Republican  party  and  hostile  Buchanan  office 
holders,  all  for  the  purpose  of  defeating  him — Douglas — who  had 
brought  forward  the  only  real  constructive  legislation,  who  had  invented 
the  only  nostrum  which  would  answer  all  questions  and  solve  all  prob- 
lems, including  the  never  heretofore  solved  slavery  problem — popular 
sovereignty. 

And  the  Judge  concluded  his  statement  by  asking  Lincoln  seven 
questions,  which  he  insisted  that  he  answer  forthwith  in  order  to  rivet 
Lincoln  to  his  chariot — he,  Douglas,  was  going  to  conduct  this  joint 
debate.  Lincoln  delivered  his  first  hour  and  a  half  address  without 
paying  much  attention  to  the  fact  that  Douglas  existed.  Douglas' 
remaining  half  hour  was,  therefore,  full  of  irritation  and  anger  and 
disappointment  that  Lincoln  did  not  refer  to  his  questions,  that  he  was 
evidently  afraid  to  answer  his  questions,  because  Lincoln  knew  that 
he,  Judge  Douglas,  would  trot  him  down  to  Egypt,  or  to  some  other 
place,  where  he  would  not  dare  to  make  the  same  speech  that  he  made 
at  Ottowa. 

And  so  the  irritable,  angered  and  excited  Douglas  kept  it  up  until 

10 


they  came  to  Galesburg,  and  here  Lincoln  delivered  his  hour  and  a 
half  talk,  carefully  prepared  and  thought  out  during  practically  an 
entire  lifetime,  and  from  that  moment  on,  until  his  second  inaugural, 
six  years  later,  Lincoln  kept  steadily  climbing  and  growing,  until  his 
entire  life  work  blossomed  out  like  a  great  constellation,  and  became 
visible  to  all  men  from  the  altitude  he  had  attained  on  the  day  he 
delivered  his  immortal  Second  Inaugural. 

Galesburg  marked  the  turning  point  of  Lincoln's  career ;  the  Gales- 
burg, Quincy,  and  Alton  addresses  were  but  three  portions  of  a  great 
oration,  of  a  great  argument,  before  the  greatest  assizes  that  ever 
were  assembled  at  any  time,  where  he  pleaded  and  argued  for  the 
life  of  the  nation,  for  the  liberty  of  a  race,  for  the  triumph  of  eternal 
principles. 

Douglas  kept  repeating  charges  of  conspiracy  between  Trumbull 
and  Lincoln,  imaginary  inaccuracies  between  different  statements  of 
Lincoln  and  Trumbull — kept  on  harping  on  the  fact  that  Lincoln  would 
not  dare  to  talk  in  Egypt  as  he  talked  in  Chicago.  He  became  suffi- 
ciently petty  to  refer  to  the  appearance  of  Fred  Douglas  with  one  of 
Lincoln's  friends  in  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  of  one  of  the  joint 
debates — thus  emphasizing  his  charge  that  Lincoln  was  for  absolute 
equality  between  the  races.  Hear  what  Lincoln  said  in  a  hitherto 
unpublished  memorandum — which  he  carried  with  him  during  the  joint 
debates : 

"Negro  equality!  Fudge!!  How  long,  in  the  government 
of  a  God,  great  enough  to  make  and  maintain  this  Universe, 
shall  there  continue' knaves  to  vend,  and  fools  to  gulp,  so  low 
a  piece  of  demagoguism  as  this?" 

If  you  compare  the  eleven  addresses  of  Douglas  delivered  from 
the  opening  at  Ottowa  to  the  closing  at  Alton,  and  boil  them  down,  you 
will  find  practically  the  same  words  and  phrases  and  similies.  If  you 
will  do  the  same  thing  to  the  ten  addresses  of  Lincoln,  you  will  find 
one  connected,  finely  woven,  argument,  consistent,  continuous,  logical, 
irresistible  in  its  force,  which  represented  the  entire  political  creed  and 
philosophy  of  Abraham  Lincoln  with  reference  to  the  fundamental 
principles  upon  which  rested  the  American  Union.  In  it  you  will  find 
everything  that  constitutes  the  cardinal  principles  upon  which  our  Con- 
stitution rests,  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  stands  for,  and 
which  every  good  man  and  true  throughout  the  history  of  the  Union 
who  ever  stood  for  Union,  for  Liberty,  for  Justice  and  for  Right  has 

11 


uttered  in  one  form  or  another.  In  it  you  will  find  the  great  heart 
and  soul  of  Lincoln,  throbbing  and  beating  for  the  love  of  his  country, 
for  the  love  of  his  fellowmen.  In  it  you  will  find  the  ripest  wisdom, 
the  soundest  philosophy,  which  is  as  true  today  as  it  was  on  the  day 
it  was  uttered,  and  which  will  remain  true  for  all  time  to  come.  He 
demonstrated  with  the  exactness  and  definiteness  and  lucidity  of  a 
geometrical  proposition,  that  the  Dred  Scott  decision  was  the  result  of 
political  considerations  and  conferences  by  conspirators  he  chose  to 
designate  under  transparent  names  such  as  Stephen,  Roger,  Franklin 
and  James — and  he  further  demonstrated  by  a  chain  of  historical  events 
absolutely  incontrovertible,  that  the  fathers  and  founders  had  acted 
and  legislated  in  reference  to  the  hateful  institution  with  the  sole 
object  of  looking  to  its  ultimate  extinction.  Just  listen  to  what  he  says 
in  a  hitherto  unpublished  memorandum  and  which  he  had  with  him 
during  the  joint  debates  : 

'The  effort  to  prove  that  our  fathers  who  framed  the 
government  under  which  we  live,  understood  that  a  proper 
division  of  local  from  federal  authority,  and  sound  provision 
of  the  Constitution,  both  forbid  the  federal  government  to 
control  slavery  in  the  federal  territory,  is  as  if,  when  a  man 
stands  before  you,  so  that  you  see  him,  and  lay  your  hand 
upon  him,  you  should  go  about  examining  his  tracks,  and 
insisting  therefore,  that  he  is  not  present,  but  somewhere  else 
— They  did,  through  the  federal  government,  control  slavery 
in  the  federal  territory — They  did  the  identical  thing  which 
Douglas  insists  they  understood  they  ought  not  to  do." 

Against  these  two  propositions  Douglas  made  no  headway — history 
was  against  him — the  new  world  order  was  against  him — the  very 
stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  him. 

One  cannot  help  feeling,  in  view  of  Judge  Douglas'  great  abilities 
and  demonstrated  capacity  for  legal  argument  for  joint  debate,  for 
political  discussion  and  acumen — one  cannot  help  thinking  that  he 
began  to  suspect,  after  he  listened  to  Lincoln,  that  he  might  be  on  the 
wrong  side  of  that  great  question,  because  Lincoln  demonstrated  be- 
yond the  peradventure  of  a  doubt  that  his  own  nostrum  of  popular 
sovereignty  was  not  sound,  could  not  be  sound,  and  unless  Euclid  was 
a  liar,  Judge  Douglas  knew  that  his  argument  was  false  and  was  a 
mere  gossamer  of  sand,  to  fall  apart  upon  the  slightest  collision  with 
justice  and  with  right  and  with  sound  reasoning.  Upon  no  other 
theory  can  one  explain  the  ever-growing  weakness  of  Judge  Douglas' 

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attack.  He  who  had  successfully  fought  with  the  leaders  of  his  party, 
he  who  had  successfully  fought  to  a  standstill  men  like  Seward,  and 
Sumner,  and  Chase,  and  Wade,  in  the  United  States  Senate,  a  man 
who  could  tell  an  unruly  and  a  fault  finding  and  defiant  audience  of 
twenty  thousand  Chicagoans — which  declined  to  hear  his  justification 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise — a  few  minutes  before 
twelve  o'clock  on  the  Saturday  night  when  he  returned  to  Chicago 
two  years  before :  "Fellow  citizens  of  Chicago :  It  is  now  twelve 
o'clock  Saturday  night.  I  am  going  to  church  tomorrow,  and  you  can 
go  to  Hell," — that  man  certainly  was  not  afraid  of  Lincoln  nor  the 
audiences  which  he  faced;  but  he  was  beginning  to  fear  that  he  was 
not  standing  upon  firm  ground,  and  that  the  earth,  so  to  speak,  was 
breaking  under  him — there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  himself 
convinced  by  Lincoln's  inexorable  logic.  But  as  Lincoln  says  in  still 
another  hitherto  unpublished  memorandum — "He  (Douglas)  never  lets 
the  logic  of  principle  displace  the  logic  of  success." 

All  honour  to  Galesburg,  where  this  great  work  began !  At  Gales- 
burg  it  was  where  Lincoln  began  his  career  of  leadership  triumphant. 
At  Galesburg  it  was  where  he  definitely  and  clearly  convinced  even 
Douglas  that  his  cause,  Lincoln's  cause,  was  just,  and  that  there  was 
only  one  answer  to  the  question  which  they  were  debating.  Douglas 
was  happy,  as  happy  as  he  could  be,  that  the  contest  closed,  he  was 
beaten  to  a  standstill — tired  and  exhausted,  and  Lincoln  stood  pre- 
pared to  continue — he  could  not  be  tired  out  in  this  fight.  At  the 
beginning  he  had  a  premonition  that  Lincoln  was  a  dangerous  opponent. 
His  premonition  turned  out  to  be  true.  His  fears  were  more  than 
justified,  his  expectations  realized.  Lincoln  spoke  from  the  first 
moment  like  a  man  who  knew  of  no  opponent,  like  a  man  who  spoke  to 
an  entire  people,  like  an  inspired  prophet  of  an  inspired  cause.  It  was 
not  the  same  Lincoln  whom  Douglas  had  met  in  Congress,  whom 
Douglas  had  met  in  their  trips  through  the  Eighth  Circuit,  or  at  the 
various  functions  in  Springfield  and  in  other  parts  of  Illinois.  It  was 
the  God-inspired,  the  God-intoxicated  soul,  picked  by  an  inscrutable 
Providence  to  perform  a  task  under  which  had  stumbled  and  fallen 
the  leaders  of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  A  new  man  had  arisen  on  the 
plains  of  Illinois  who,  when  he  spoke  up,  had  an  entire  nation  listening, 
contemplating,  meditating,  reasoning,  and  finally,  when  Father  Abraham 
called,  an  entire  nation  responded :  "We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham, 
five  hundred  thousand  strong." 

From  day  to  day  the  number  of  those  who  were  privileged  to  see 
that  form,  to  hear  that  voice  of  this  19th  century  prophet,  is  getting 

13 


smaller.  Nay  even  the  number  of  those  who  followed  his  remains  to 
his  last  resting  place  are  passing  to  the  Beyond  and  joining  him  among 
the  heavenly  hosts  where  abide  all  good  men  and  true.  We  cannot  see 
the  glory  that  they  saw,  we  cannot  hear  the  voice  they  heard,  but  the 
message  which  he  brought  to  them  has  become  our  heritage  and  our 
paramount  duty  to  transmit  unsullied  even  as  it  has  been  transmitted 
to  us.  Why  then  cannot  we  here  resolve — seventy  years  later — that 
he  shall  not  have  lived  and  labored  and  died  in  vain  ?  Why  cannot  we 
here  determine — under  God — to  battle  against  the  modern  misguided 
enemies  of  our  union — the  Douglas  of  today  and  of  tomorrow — for  in 
one  guise  or  another  he  appears  and  reappears  in  each  generation — 
ever  falsely  proclaiming  that  his  mission  is  their  mission  in  his  frantic 
desire  to  attain  leadership  in  our  National  Councils.  Why  can  we  not, 
why  do  we  not,  decide  and  determine  to  drive  them  from  political  life 
even  as  did  Lincoln  drive  out  Douglas  and  his  associates?  To  his 
glory  be  it  said^  Douglas  at  last  saw  the  light — saw  that  his  whole  life 
had  been  barren,  wasted,  and  returned.  But  others  never  see  the  light 
and  never  return.  There  then  is  the  enemy.  Let  us  not  be  blinded  by 
minor  matters  magnified  for  the  purpose  of  blinding  the  people  and 
diverting  their  attention  from  the  frightful  possibilities  and  calamitous 
results  if  and  when  our  government  is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
followers  of  Lincoln  and  entrusted  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies  and 
detractors.  This  country  must  continue  in  the  spirit  and  under  the 
guidance  of  the  eternal  principles  laid  down  in  Lincoln's  charter  of 
liberties  committed  to  our  care;  and  like  the  Holy  of  Holies,  it  must 
be  guarded  with  our  very  lives.  That  much  we  of  our  generation  can 
do,  and  with  God's  help  will  do.  This  is  our  paramount  daily  task. 
No  strange  fires  must  be  permitted  on  our  national  altar — death  was 
the  penalty  for  Aaron's  disobedient  sons,  who  sought  to  introduce  it — 
in  defiance  of  Moses  and  Aaron  whom  they  sought  to  displace. 

Death  of  Lincoln's  government  of  the  people  will  be  our  penalty 
should  we  permit  the  undermining,  the  desecration,  the  uprooting  of 
our  form  of  government  at  the  hands  of  the  vandal,  the  communist, 
the  unholy  alliances  of  evil,  of  disloyalty,  of  hypocrisy,  and  of  all  those 
hosts  who  have  no  truth  in  them,  who  falsify  issues  even  as  they 
falsify  their  intentions.  May  He,  in  whose  eyes  a  thousand  years  are 
but  a  moment,  and  who  brought  us  through  the  successive  ordeals  of 
Revolution  and  Civil  War,  save  us  and  keep  us  in  all  these  succeeding 
trials  and  tests.  The  omnipresent  spirit  of  Lincoln  will  guard  us, 
intervene  for  us,  plead  for  us  and  protect  us — Our  Heavenly  Guardian 
slumbereth  not  and  sleepeth  not ! 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973  7L63C4H44AB  C001 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  AT  THE  CLIMAX  OF  THE  GRE 

3  0112  031805™^ 


